Eric Schockmel

The Feathered Serpent

Part of the What If You Created Artificial Life And It Started Worshipping You series, The Feathered Serpent is a sophisticated take on an alternative life form. Entirely forensic in appearance, set against a skin of brilliant white, cushioned by the rhythmic hum of a technological heartbeat, Schockmel’s animated entity reads like the closing moments of a new science fiction film in which the anatomical arm elevates this precise symmetrical hub of automated petals that collectively protract, revealing a penetrating eye. All of which is elegantly encircled by a series of rotating rings that resemble Saturn’s rings in orbit. Spreading out to touch the edges of the screen, these dot and dash circles run in opposition to one another like helicopter blades, as they effectively animate around the central axis, giving the encircled merry-go-round an arresting appeal. And as the central narrative, when a precise number of rotations are complete, the outer rings disappear from view as proficiently and effectively as they originally appeared for the automated arm to draw the central hub back in on itself and balance is restored.